North American Aviation, Inc., X-15A-1 56-6670 hypersonic research rocketplane on display at the National Air and Space Museum. (Photo by Eric Long, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution)
10 June 1969: The U.S. Air Force donated the first North American Aviation X-15, serial number 56-6670, to the Smithsonian Institution for display at the National Air and Space Museum.
The North American Aviation, Inc., X-15A-1, 56-6670, being brought into the Arts and Industries building, June 1969. The wings and sections of the dorsal and ventral fins have been removed. (Smithsonian Institution Archives SI-A-4145-23-A)
The first of three X-15A hypersonic research rocketplanes built by North American for the Air Force and the National Advisory Committee (NACA, the predecessor of NASA), 56-6670 made the first glide flight and the first and last powered flights of the X-15 Program. It made a total of 82 of the 199 X-15 flights.
Scott Crossfield, North American’s Chief Engineering Test Pilot, made the first unpowered flight 8 June 1959 and the first powered flight, 17 September 1959. NASA Research Test Pilot William H. “Bill” Dana made the final X-15 flight on 24 October 1968.
The first North American Aviation, Inc., X-15A, 56-6670, at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C. Above and behind the X-15 is the Douglas D558-II Skyrocket that Scott Crossfield flew to Mach 2.005, 20 November 1953. (D. Ramey Logan via Wikipedia)
Scott Crossfield prepares for a flight in the North American Aviation X-15A.
8 June 1959: At Edwards Air Force Base, California, North American Aviation’s Chief Engineering Test Pilot, A. Scott Crossfield, made the first flight of the X-15A hypersonic research rocketplane.
56-6670 was the first of three X-15s built for the U.S. Air Force and NASA. It was airdropped from a Boeing NB-52A Stratofortress, 52-003, at 37,550 feet (11,445 meters) over Rosamond Dry Lake at 08:38:40 a.m, Pacific Daylight Time.
This was an unpowered glide flight to check the flying characteristics and aircraft systems, so there were no propellants or oxidizers aboard, other than hydrogen peroxide which powered the pumps and generators.
The aircraft reached 0.79 Mach (522 miles per hour, 840 kilometers per hour) during the 4 minute, 56.6 second flight.
North American Aviation Chief Engineering Test Pilot Albert Scott Crossfield in the cockpit of an X-15 before a flight. (LIFE Magazine via Jet Pilot Overseas)
In his autobiography, Scott Crossfield described the first flight:
“Three” . . . “Two” . . . “One” . . .
“DROP”
Inside the streamlined pylon, a hydraulic ram disengaged the three heavy shackles from the upper fuselage of the X-15. They were so arranged that all released simultaneously, and if one failed they all failed. The impact of the release was clearly audible in the X-15 cockpit. I heard a loud “kerchunk.”
X-15A 56-6670 under the wing of NB-52A 52-003 at high altitude. Scott Crossfield is in the cockpit of the rocketplane. (Air Force Flight Test Center History Office, U.S. Air Force)
The X-15 hung in its familiar place beneath the pylon for a split second. Then the nose dipped sharply down and to the right more rapidly than I had anticipated. The B-52, so long my constant companion, was gone. The X-15 and I were alone in the air and flying 500 miles an hour. In less than five minutes I would be on the ground. . . .
There was much to do in the first hundred seconds of flight. First I had to get the “feel” of the airplane, to make certain it was trimmed out for landing just as any pilot trims an airplane after take-off or . . . when dwindling fuel shifts the center of gravity. Then I had to pull the nose up, with and without flaps, to feel out the stall characteristics, so that I would know how she might behave at touchdown speeds . . . My altimeter unwound dizzily: from 24,000 to 13,000 feet in less than forty seconds. . . .
X-15A 56-6670 drops from the wing of the B-52 mothership, 8 June 1959. The vapor trail is from venting hydrogen peroxide used to power the aircraft pumps and generators. Note the roll to the right as the X-15 drops away from the Stratofortress. (NASA)
The desert was coming up fast. At 600 feet altitude I flared out. . . .
In the next second without warning the nose of the X-15 pitched up sharply. It was a maneuver that had not been predicted by the computers, an uncharted area which the X-15 was designed to explore. I was frankly caught off guard. Quickly I applied corrective elevator control.
The nose went down sharply. But instead of leveling out, it tucked down. I applied reverse control. The nose came up but much too far. Now the nose was rising and falling like a skiff in a heavy sea. Although I was putting in maximum control I could not subdue the motions. The X-15 was porpoising wildly, sinking toward the desert at 200 miles an hour. I would have to land at the bottom of an oscillation, timed perfectly; otherwise, I knew, I would break the bird. I lowered the flaps and the gear. . . .
. . . With the next dip I had one last chance and flared again to ease the descent. At that moment the rear skids caught on the desert floor and the nose slammed over, cushioned by the nose wheel. The X-15 skidded 5,000 feet across the lake, throwing up an enormous rooster tail of dust. . . .
—Always Another Dawn: The Story of a Rocket Test Pilot, by A. Scott Crossfield and Clay Blair, Jr., The World Publishing Company, Cleveland and New York, 1960, Chapter 37 at Pages 338–342.
This photograph shows the second North American Aviation X-15A, 56-6671, flaring to land on Rogers Dry Lake, Edwards Air Force Base, California. The rear skids are just touching down. The white patches on the aircraft’s belly are frost from residual cryogenic propellants remaining in its tanks after a powered flight. (U.S. Air Force)
Before the drop, it was discovered that the aircraft’s Stability Augmentation System was inoperative in pitch mode. During the flight it was found that the hydraulic-assisted flight control system was responding too slowly to Crossfield’s inputs. Engineers analyzed the problem and increased the hydraulic system pressure. The problem never recurred.
Scott Crossfield was the world’s most experienced rocketplane pilot with 82 rocketplane flights before the X-15 program. “. . . he was intimately involved in the design of the aircraft and contributed immensely to the success of the design.”
—At The Edge Of Space, by Milton O. Thompson, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992, Introduction, at Page 3.
North American Aviation X-15A 56-6670 made the first glide flight and the first and last powered flights of the X-15 Program. It made a total of 82 of the 199 X-15 flights. 56-6670 is in the collection of National Air and Space Museum at Washington, D.C.
A. Scott Crossfield, wearing a David Clark Co. XMC-2 full-pressure suit, which he helped to design and test, with the first of three North American X-15s, 56-6670. (North American Aviation, Inc.)
Major Arthur Warren “Kit” Murray, U.S. Air Force, with the Bell X-1A at Edwards AFB, 20 July 1954. Major Murray is wearing a David Clark Co. T-1 capstan-type partial-pressure suit with a K-1 helmet. (NASA)
4 June 1954: at Edwards Air Force Base, California, Major Arthur W. “Kit” Murray flew the experimental Bell X-1A research rocketplane to an altitude of 89,810 feet (27,374 meters). He flew high enough that the sky darkened and he was able to see the curvature of the Earth. Newspapers called him “America’s first space pilot.”
The X-1A reached Mach 1.97. Encountering the same inertial coupling instability as had Chuck Yeager, 20 November 1953, though at a lower speed, the X-1A tumbled out of control. The rocket plane lost over 20,000 feet (6,100 meters) altitude before Murray could regain control. For this accomplishment, Major Murray was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
One week earlier, 28 May 1954, Murray had flown the X-1A to an unofficial world record altitude of 90,440 feet (27,566 meters).
Arthur Murray, 1936. (The Argus)
Arthur Warren Murray was born at Cresson, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, 26 December 1918. He was the first of two children of Charles Chester Murray, a clerk, and Elsie Espy Murray.
Arthur Murray attended Huntingdon High School, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, graduating 4 June 1936, and then studied Juniata College, also in Huntingdon, 1937–1938.
Arthur Murray, 1938. (The Nineteen Thirty-Seven Alfarata)
Kit Murray enlisted in the Field Artillery, Pennsylvania National Guard, 17 November 1939. (Some sources state that he served in the U.S. Cavalry.) Murray had brown hair and blue eyes, was 5 feet, 10 inches (1.78 meters) tall and weighed 150 pounds (68 kilograms). Following the United States’ entry into World War II, Sergeant Murray requested to be trained as a pilot. He was appointed a flight officer (a warrant officer rank), Army of the United States, on 5 December 1942. On 15 October 1943 Flight Officer Murray received a battlefield promotion to the commissioned rank of second lieutenant, A.U.S.
Between 6 January and 22 October 1943, Murray flew over 50 combat missions in the Curtiss-Wright P-40 Warhawk across North Africa. After about ten months in the Mediterranean Theater, he returned to the United States, assigned as an instructor flying the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter bomber, stationed at Bradley Field, Hartford, Connecticut.
Republic P-47 Thunderbolts at Bradley Field, Connecticut, 9 September 1944. (U.S. Air Force)
Lieutenant Murray married Miss Elizabeth Anne Strelic, who had immigrated from Czechoslovakia with her family as an infant, at Atlantic City, New Jersey, 29 December 1943. They would have six children, and foster a seventh. They later divorced. (Mrs. Murray died in 1980.)
Lieutenant and Mrs. Arthur W. Murray, 1943. (Murray Family Collection)
Murray was promoted to 1st lieutenant, A.U.S., 8 August 1944. His next assignment was as a maintenance officer. He was sent to Maintenance Engineering School at Chanute Field, Rantoul, Illinois, and from there to the Flight Test School at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio.
Murray was the first test pilot to be permanently assigned to Muroc Army Air Field (later, Edwards Air Force Base). Other test pilots, such as Captain Chuck Yeager, were assigned to Wright Field and traveled to Muroc as necessary.
Murray’s A.U.S. commission was converted to first lieutenant, Air Corps, United States Army, on 19 June 1947, with date of rank retroactive to 15 October 1946. The U.S. Air Force became a separate military service in 1947, and Lieutenant Murray became an officer in the new service.
Major Arthur Warren (“Kit”) Murray, United States Air Force, with a Northrop F-89 Scorpion interceptor, 1954. (The New York Times)
Murray was involved in testing new Air Force fighters such as the Bell P-59 Airacomet, Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, Republic P-84 Thunderjet, McDonnell XF-88 Voodoo; and the Douglas XB-43 Jetmaster and North American Aviation B-45 Tornado jet bombers. He also flew the experimental aircraft such as the X-1A, X-1B, X-4 and X-5. Murray spent six years at Edwards before going on to other assignments.
Colonel Arthur Warren (“Kit”) Murray, U.S. Air Force.
Later, 1958–1960, Major Murray was the U.S. Air Force project officer for the North American Aviation X-15 hypersonic research rocketplane at Wright Field.
Colonel Murray retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1961. He next worked for Boeing in Seattle, Washington, from 1961 to 1969, and then Bell Helicopter in Texas.
On 4 April 1975, Kit Murray married his second wife, Ms. Ann Tackitt Humphreys, an interior decorator, in Tarrant County, Texas.
Colonel Arthur Warren Murray, United States Air Force (Retired), died at West, Texas, 25 July 2011, at the age of 92 years.
A highly modified Boeing B-29 Superfortress carries the Bell X-1A to altitude over Edwards AFB. (U.S. Air Force)
The Bell X-1A was a follow-on project to the earlier X-1. It was designed and built by the Bell Aircraft Corporation at Buffalo, New York, to investigate speeds above Mach 2 and altitudes above 90,000 feet (27,432 meters). It was carried to altitude by a modified Boeing B-29 Superfortress, then dropped for the research flight.
The rocketplane was 35 feet, 7 inches (10.846 meters) long with a wingspan of 28 feet (8.534 meters) and overall height of 10 feet, 8 inches (3.251 meters). It had an empty weight of 6,880 pounds (3,120.7 kilograms) and gross weight of 16,487 pounds (7,478.3 kilograms).
The X-1A was powered by a Reaction Motors XLR-11-RM-5 four-chamber rocket engine which produced 6,000 pounds of thrust. It had a maximum speed of Mach 2.44 (Yeager) and reached an altitude of 90,440 feet (27,566.1 meters) (Murray).
Bell X-1A 48-1384. (U.S. Air Force)
The X-1A was destroyed by an internal explosion, 20 July 1955.
Lieutenant Colonel Frank K. Everest, U.S. Air Force, with a Bell X-2 at Edwards Air Force Base. Colonel Everest is wearing a David Clark Co. T-1 capstan-type partial-pressure suit for protection at very high altitude. (U.S. Air Force)
25 April 1956: At Edwards Air Force Base, California, test pilot Lieutenant Colonel Frank Kendall (“Pete”) Everest, United States Air Force, was airdropped from a Boeing EB-50D Superfortress in the Bell X-2 supersonic research rocket plane, serial number 46-674. This was the tenth flight of the X-2 program, and only the third powered flight.
For the first time, Everest fired both chambers of the Curtiss-Wright XLR25 rocket engine. On this flight, the X-2 reached Mach 1.40 and 50,000 feet (15,240 meters). It was the first time an X-2 had gone supersonic.
Bell X-2 46-674 in flight over Southern California, circa 1955–56. (NASA Photograph ET–128)
The X-2 was a joint project of the U.S. Air Force and NACA (the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, the predecessor of NASA). The rocketplane was designed and built by Bell Aircraft Corporation of Buffalo, New York, to explore supersonic flight at speeds beyond the capabilities of the earlier Bell X-1 and Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket.
In addition to the aerodynamic effects of speeds in the Mach 2.0–Mach 3.0 range, engineers knew that the high temperatures created by aerodynamic friction would be a problem, so the aircraft was built from stainless steel and K-Monel, a copper-nickel alloy.
The Bell Aircraft Corporation X-2 was 37 feet, 10 inches (11.532 meters) long with a wingspan of 32 feet, 3 inches (9.830 meters) and height of 11 feet, 10 inches (3.607 meters). Its empty weight was 12,375 pounds (5,613 kilograms) and loaded weight was 24,910 pounds (11,299 kilograms).
The X-2 was powered by a throttleable two-chamber Curtiss-Wright XLR25-CW-1 rocket engine that produced 2,500–15,000 pounds of thrust (11.12–66.72 kilonewtons).
Rather than use its limited fuel capacity to take off and climb to altitude, the X-2 was dropped from a modified heavy bomber as had been the earlier rocketplanes. A four-engine Boeing B-50D-95-BO Superfortress bomber, serial number 48-096, was modified as the drop ship and redesignated EB-50D.
Bell X-2 46-674 on final approach. (NASA)
The launch altitude was 30,000 feet (9,144 meters). After the fuel was exhausted, the X-2 glided to a touchdown on Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards Air Force Base.
Two X-2 rocketplanes were built. The second X-2, 46-675, was destroyed during a captive flight, 12 May 1953. The explosion killed Bell test pilot Skip Ziegler and Frank Wolko, an engineer aboard the B-50A mothership. The B-50 made an emergency landing but was so badly damaged that it never flew again.
The X-2 reached a maximum speed of Mach 3.196 (2,094 miles per hour/3,370 kilometers per hour) and maximum altitude of 126,200 feet (38,466 meters).
Boeing EB-50D Superfortress 48-096 with a Bell X-2 (U.S. Air Force)
The EB-50D was a highly modified four-engine Boeing B-50D-95-BO Superfortress long range heavy bomber, engineered to carry research aircraft to high altitudes before releasing them for a test flight. The B-50 was an improved version of the World War II B-29A Superfortress.
Boeing B-50D-95-BO (S/N 48-096) in flight. (U.S. Air Force photo)Boeing B-50D-95-BO Superfortress 48-096 prior to modification to an EB-50D X-2 carrier. (U.S. Air Force/Bill Pippin Collection, 1000aircraftphotos.com)Boeing B-50D-95-BO Superfortress 48-096 prior to modification to an EB-50D X-2 carrier. (U.S. Air Force)Boeing B-50D-95-BO Superfortress 48-096 prior to modification to an EB-50D X-2 carrier. (U.S. Air Force)
Frank Kendall (“Pete”) Everest, Jr., was born 10 Aug 1920, at Fairmont, Marion County, West Virginia. He was the first of two children of Frank Kendall Everest, an electrical contractor, and Phyllis Gail Walker Everest. Attended Fairmont Senior High School, Fairmont, West Virginia, graduating in 1939. He studied at Fairmont State Teachers College, also in Fairmont, West Virginia, and then studied engineering at teh University of Wesst Virginia in Morgantown.
Pete Everest enlisted as an aviation cadet in the United States Army Air Corps at Fort Hayes, Columbus, Ohio, 7 November 1941, shortly before the United States entered World War II. His enlistment records indicate that he was 5 feet, 7 inches (1.703 meters) tall and weighed 132 pounds (59.9 kilograms). He graduated from pilot training and was commissioned as a second lieutenant, Air Reserve, 3 July 1942.
Everest married Miss Avis June Mason in Marion, West Virginia, in 1942.
Pete Everest with his Curtiss-Wright P-40 Warhawk, North Africa, 1943.
He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant, Army of the United States, 11 November 1942. He was assigned as a Curtiss-Wright P-40 Warhawk pilot, flying 94 combat missions in North Africa, Sicily and Italy. He was credited with shooting down two German airplanes and damaging a third. Everest was promoted to the rank of Captain, 17 August 1943.
In 1944, Everest was returned to the United States to serve as a flight instructor. He requested a return to combat and was then sent to the China-Burma-India theater of operations where he flew 67 missions and shot down four Japanese airplanes. He was himself shot down by ground fire in May 1945. Everest was captured by the Japanese and suffered torture and inhumane conditions before being freed at the end of the war. He was promoted to the rank of major, 1 July 1945. He was returned to the United States military 3 October 1945.
After the war, Everest was assigned as a test pilot at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, before going west to the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
Everest was returned to the permanent rank of first lieutenant, Air Corps, 19 June 1947, with date of rank retroactive to 3 July 1945.
Major Frank Kendall Everest, Jr., U.S. Air Force, with a Bell X-1 supersonic research rocketplane, 46-062, circa 1950. (mach-buster.co.uk)
At Edwards, he was involved in nearly every flight test program, flying the F-88, F-92, F-100, F-101, F-102, F-104 and F-105 fighters, the XB-51, YB-52, B-57 and B-66 bombers. He also flew the pure research aircraft, the “X planes:” the X-1, X-1B, X-2, X-3, X-4 and X-5. Pete Everest flew the X-1B to Mach 2.3, and he set a world speed record with the X-2 at Mach 2.9 (1,957 miles per hour, 3,149.5 kilometers per hour) which earned him the title, “The Fastest Man Alive.” He was the test pilot on thirteen of the twenty X-2 flights.
Major Frank Kendall Everest, Jr., U.S. Air Force, with the Bell X-2 supersonic research rocketplane, on Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards AFB, California, 1956. (U.S. Air Force via Jet Pilot Overseas)
Frank Everest returned to operational assignments and commanded a fighter squadron, two combat crew training wings, and was assigned staff positions at the Pentagon. On 20 November 1963, Colonel Everest, commanding the 4453rd Combat Crew Training Squadron, flew one of the first two operational McDonnell F-4C Phantom II fighters from the factory in St. Louis to MacDill Air Force Base.
Brigadier General Gilbert L. Meyers and Colonel Frank Kendall Everest delivered the first production F-4C Phantom IIs to the Tactical Air Command at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. (U.S. Air Force)
In 1965, Pete Everest was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. He was commander of the Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service. He retired from the Air Force in 1973 after 33 years of service. He later worked as a test pilot for Sikorsky Aircraft.
During his military career General Everest was awarded the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal; Legion of Merit with two oak leaf clusters (three awards); Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters (three awards); Purple Heart; Air Medal with one silver and two bronze oak leaf clusters (seven awards); Air Force Commendation Medal with one oak leaf cluster (two awards); Presidential Unit Citation with two bronze oak leaf clusters (three awards); Air Force Gallant Unit Citation; Prisoner of War Medal; American Campaign Medal; European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign medal with four bronze stars; Asiatic-Pacific campaign Medal with two bronze stars; World War II Victory Medal; National Defense Service Medal; Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal; Vietnam Service Medal; Air Force Longevity Service Award with one silver and two bronze oak leaf clusters (seven awards); Air Force Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon; and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal with 1960– device. General Everest was rated as a Command Pilot, and a Basic Parachutist.
Brigadier General Frank Kendall Everest, Jr. United States Air Force (Retired), died at Tucson, Arizona, 1 October 2004 at the age of 84 years.
Brigadier General Frank Kendall Everest, Jr., United States Air Force. (U.s. Air Force)
27 March 1943: Test pilot Captain Grigory Yakovlevich Bakhchivandzhi (Григорий Яковлевич Бахчиванджи) fired the rocket engine of his ski-equipped number three protototype Bolkhovitinov BI and accelerated across the ice-covered Lake Bilimbay near Koltsovo airport at Sverdlovsk, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (now Koltsovo International Airport (SVX), Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation).
The tiny airplane quickly became airborne and Bakhchivandzhi climbed to 2,000 meters (6,562 feet), leveled off, then continued to accelerate in level flight. The rocket engine burned for 78 seconds before its fuel supply was exhausted. Various estimates are that the BI-3 reached a speed of 750 to 900 kilometers per hour (405 knots/466 miles per hour to 486 knots/559 miles per hour).
Suddenly the BI-3 pitched downward into a 50° dive. Without ever pulling out, it crashed into the frozen surface of the lake, about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) south of the airfield. The BI-3 was destroyed and Grigory Bakhchivandzhi was killed.
Speculation at the time was the when the rocket engine shut down, the sudden deceleration threw Bakhchivandzhi forward and he struck his head on the gun sight, knocking him unconscious. Years later, wind tunnel testing revealed that at high speed, the Bolkhovitinov BI had a tendency to pitch downward. The elevators could not apply enough force to counteract this. Today, this is known as “Mach tuck.” At transonic speeds, shockwaves form on the wings and push the center of pressure aft.
BI-3 was the third of six prototypes for a rocket-powered close range fighter—a Blizhniy Istrebitel’ (Ближний Истребитель), hence its designation “BI.” It was designed by Aleksandr Yakovlevich Bereznyak (Александр Яковлевич Березняк) and Alexey Mikhailovich Isaev (Алексе́й Миха́йлович Иса́ев), of the experimental design bureau OKB-293, headed by Viktor Fyodorovich Bolkhovitinov (Виктор Фёдорович Болховитинов).
The first prototype, BI-1, made its first flight 15 March 1942, flown by Bakhchivandzhi. The 27 March 1943 flight was the eighth for the series and fourth for BI-3. It was Bakhchivandzhi‘s seventh flight in the type.
Grigory Yakovlevich Bakhchivandzhi climbs into the cockpit of BI-2, circa 1942.
The Bolkhovitinov BI ¹ was a series of seven small low-wing monoplanes with conventional retractable landing gear. They was flown by a single pilot. The airplane was built of 2 millimeter (0.8 inch) plywood covered with fabric. It was 6.400 meters (21 feet) long with a wingspan of 6.600 meters (21 feet, 7.8 inches) and height of 2.06 meters (6 feet, 11 inches).² The total wing area was 7.00 square meters (75.35 square feet). The airplane had an empty weight of 790 kilograms (1,742 pounds) and maximum takeoff weight of 1,683 kilograms (3,710 pounds). The normal wheeled main landing gear could be equipped with skis for operation on snow or ice.
Bolkhovitinov BI cutaway and three-view illustration with dimensions.
The fighter was powered by a throttleable Dushkin D-1-A-1100 rocket engine, designed by Leonid Stepanovich Dushkin (Леонид Степанович Душкин). It was fueled by kerosene and red fuming nitric acid (RFNA). The mixture was ignited by a glow plug. The D-1-A-1100 could produce a maximum thrust of 10.79 kilonewtons (7,958 pound-feet).
Dushkin D-1-A-11000 rocket engine
During flight testing, BI-3 had reached a maximum altitude of 4,000 meters (13,123 feet), and a maximum rate of climb of 83 meters per second (16,339 feet per minute).
The BI was armed with two 20 millimeter ShVAK autocannon mounted in the nose with 45 rounds of ammunition per gun. The cannon fired a 20 mm × 99 mm rimmed cartridge. The explosive projectile weighed from 91.0 to 99.0 grams, depending on type, and had a muzzle velocity of 750 to 790 meters per second (2,461 to 2,592 feet per second). The rate of fire could be selected, ranging from 550 to 800 rounds per minute. The BI could also carry ten 2.5 kilogram (5.5 pound) bomblets to be dropped on enemy bomber formations.
Only seven BIs were built. Following the crash of BI-3, a planned production of 40 to 50 operational interceptors based on the configuration of BI-4 was cancelled.
Grigory Yakovlevich Bakhchivandzhi was born 20 February 1908 in the village of Brinkovskaya, Temryuksky district, province of Kuban, Russian Empire. He was the son of Yakov Ivanovich Bakhchivandzhi, a mechanical engineer working in a steam plant, and Maria Evtikhievna Grechanaya. His mother died when he was six years old. Grigory and his brothers were raised by an aunt, Agnes Stepanova.
Bakhchivandzhi received only seven years of education in his village before going to work in a foundry at the age of 17 years. Later he was employed as an assistant locomotive engineer (driver).
In 1927 Bakhchivandzhi joined the Communist Youth League. In 1928 he worked at the Mariupol Metallurgical Plant (the Illich Iron & Steel Works, Mariupol, Ukraine).
Bakhchivandzhi joined the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army in 1931. In 1932, he became a member of the Bolshevik Communist Party. He graduated from the Aviation Technical School in 1933, and the Orenburg Higher Military Aviation School for Pilots in 1934. He began flight testing at the Air Force Research Institute in 1935.
During the Great Patriotic War he flew with the 402nd Special Fighter Aviation Regiment in the Defense of Moscow. From 1 July to 10 August 1941, Bakhchivandzhi flew 65 combat missions in the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 (which he had previously flown as a test pilot) and is credited with shooting down five enemy aircraft (3 shared with other pilots).³ He was promoted to the rank of captain in 1941.
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3, circa 1941–42. (Charles M. Daniels Collection, San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives, Catalog #: 15_002209)
Captain Bakhchivandzhi was awarded the Order of Lenin 17 October 1942 for his courage as the squadron commander. (He was nominated for Hero of the Soviet Union, but because of a “failure to comply with formalities,” this was not awarded.)
His remains are buried in a cemetery in the village of Maly istok, near the Koltsovo airport.
It is reported that Cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, the first human in space, said, “Without the flights of Grigory Bakhchivandzhi, there might not have been April 12, 1961.”
On 28 April 1973, thirty years after his death, Bakhchivandzhi was named Hero of the Soviet Union. He was posthumously awarded a second Order of Lenin.
Memorial to Grigory Yakovlevich Bakhchivandzhi at Brinkovskaya, his hometown. (airforce.ru)
¹ Also known as the Bereznyak-Isayev BI
² Most sources give the wingspan of BI-1 as 6.48 meters (21 feet, 3.1 inches). BI-5, BI-6 and BI-7 were 6.940 meters (22 feet, 9.2 inches) long, with a wingspan of 6.615 meters (21 feet, 8.4 inches) and height of 2.500 meters (8 feet, 2.4 inches). The wing area was 7.04 square meters (75.78 square feet).
³ 4 July 1941, Dornier Do 217; 5 July, Junkers Ju 88; 7 July, Junkers Ju 88 (shared credit with Captain A.G. Proshakov); 10 July, Heinkel He 126 (shared with Lieutenant K. F. Kozhevnikov; 2 August, Junkers Ju-88 (shared credit with P. Kh. Ananekov and Zharov). (Other sources say that Bakhchivandzhi shot down two Dornier Do 215s on 4 July. During that air battle, the engine of his MiG-3 failed, and he made a perfect engine-off landing. The fighter was riddled with bullets and Bakhchivandzhi’s silk scarf had been penetrated by a bullet. The same source also credits him with a Henschel Hs 126 reconnaissance airplane, and Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Me 110 fighters, though the dates of these victories is not stated.)
